South Padre Island - Postscript

Drove home yesterday ... uneventful trip ... the highlight was a Peanut Buster Parfait at DQ's in Refugio. We are very pleased with the final upgrade of the kitchen which looks like the above pics (I thought they followed the comments):

South Padre Island

Saturday was a "run around" day ... we drove out to Los Fresnos and pigged out on their mucho grande Tex-Mex platter lunch described earlier in this blog. On the way back we joined "herd" headed for South Padre ... mucho creeping along. Today we lounged around ... caught up on our last minute fixers here - new pictures up, install new blind over the kitchen sink and fun stuff like that there. -------I forgot ---- on Friday we linked up with some old friends from Long Island Village and passed them some stuff for their church yard sale.------
The racing action at the Brickyard today was exciting .... fortunately no one was hurt! We are looking forward to the early arrival of our backsplash installers in the morning, then collect our stuff for the trip back home on Tuesday.

Each night about 9ish the have a huge fireworks display from a barge in the bay ... it is readily seen from our balcony. Lil Beckett doesn't enjoy sight and sound of it and we have to time his last walk AFTER the display. I tried to get some pics but my timing was terrible.

                                                                             

More to follow ....

South Padre Island

The plumber wrapped up the necessary connections to the sink/disposal/spigot and the whole installation looks pretty good. We had to extend our block on the place until the end of the month ... new tenants are due in on June 2nd. The rental company had to scramble to relocate folks due in today inasmuch as the backsplash installers will not get here until Monday. We have been assured by the folks at Lowe's they WILL BE here Monday morning. We plan to return home on Tuesday.

Beckett and I strolled the beach this morning ... suppose to be in the 90's today with a very brisk wind ... upwards of 40 miles per hour. Here are some shots of the beach this morning .... pretty good size surf.

Here are a couple of shots of the kitchen with the doors installed:

We are off for lunch .... headed to Kelly's, reportedly the best Reuben in the Valley!

Catch you later!

South Padre Island

 Back again .... the pics above show you how they taped it all up for spraying the cabinet frames.

These pics show the cabinet frames all sprayed up:

Last night we ate at Dirty Al's ... the best fried shrimp on the island. It looks like this:

We are awaiting the arrival of the countertop and backsplash installers.

The countertop folks DID get here about 10ish .... and installed them ... really nice job. However, the backsplash people are not coming ... numerous phone calls later reveals we are scheduled for MONDAY! Hopefully, we can sort that out tomorrow; but, if we have to, we'll survive till then and move our return from Sunday to Tuesday. Tomorrow we can concentrate on getting the plumber back to hook up the sink/disposal/spigot.

More to come ...

South Padre Island

We spent the day ... waiting ... waiting ... waiting ... for the cabinet refinisher, who was to be here at 9ish ... turned out to be 3ish after we called twice and insisted they get started  because the plumber was coming tomorrow afternoon to disconnect the stuff from the sink. Sadly, the contractors in the Valley have a very different concept of the term "timely" and seem to focus on "later".  Anyway. we are on the timeline again, and if they show up as promised tomorrow at 9ish, we are good to go.

The kitchen is all taped up for the spraying to begin so we were forced to enjoy some yummy Church's Chicken w/cole slaw and freshly made biscuits.

More to follow ...

South Padre Island

Woke up to another lovely day in South Texas! Yesterday was a shopping day ... went to the outlets at Mercedes. Enroute we stopped at a huge Shell Store (they sell shells and all kinds of crafty things) outside San Benito and bought a bunch of shells (of course), wall hanging thingees, and other decorative items to spruce up the condo.

                                                                         

Then we stopped at Julia's in SB for lunch .... had a huge Tex-Mex combo plate (taco, chalupa, frajita, and tamale w/refried beans and Spanish rice) ... that was the meal for the whole day! We waddled back to the car and headed for Mercedes. Most of our buys were for replacement items for the kitchen ... folks either misplace, break or steal all kind of kitchen things, it seems. On the way home we bought a new 26" TV for the second bedroom which had died ... plus the batteries in the remote were missing and it was broken. We seem to lose batteries from most of the remotes over time; maybe tenants need them more in their stuff!

                                                                           

Today we plan to go to Brownsville and look for a couple of new rugs, lamp shades and blind for the kitchen. Sounds exciting, doesn't it?

More to come....

South Padre Island

It is a bright sunny morning here in South Texas ... Beckett and I walked down to the beach and watched the sunrise --- over the years we have noted they are a thing of beauty here.

In the past, our blogs always talked about FOOD. This is no exception ... yesterday Gene had a platter of Migas a la Mexicana, an egg dish of scrambled eggs containing strips of tortilla, onion, green pepper and jalapina pepper; served with refried beans and hot flour tortillas. You know it is good when your nose runs and your eyes water; it is REALLY good when you sweat after putting the accompanying hot sauce on it. Donna had an omelet with toast --- not too exciting. Last night we steamed some yummy Gulf shrimp (you can get it off the boat so you know it's the real thing), tomatoes, and  raw carrots and cauliflower with ranch dressing. Beckett had dry dog food which he gobbled down -- a usual!

We are awaiting the arrival of the crew that will refinish the cabinets --- black semi-gloss lacquer. The kitchen now looks like this:

  
That's all for now!

South Padre Island

We have been working for some time to upgrade our condo at Beachview on the island hoping to make it more attractive to renters. It is a two bedroom/two bath unit which is one of 42 in the complex which has a pool and hot tub in the atrium in the middle. Part of the package includes cable TV and WiFi. It is located on Gulf Blvd and across from a beach access point. Two years ago we installed new appliances (stove, microwave, washer/dryer and dishwasher) and now we are moving into the next stage - countertops, backsplash, sink w/spigot and a paint job on the outdated oak cabinets. Working with a kitchen planner at Lowe's in Harlingen, he set up the purchases of materials we identified at the Lowe's back in League City -- it really worked out well.

Wednesday morning we piled into a fully packed car with Beckett snuggled into a comforter on top of two side chairs in the back seat. It was a beautiful day for the eight hour drive through Victoria, Kingsville and Harlingen. After some scampering about yesterday - the sink needed to be changed and the cabinet refinisher couldn't be located - we are back on track with countertop installation scheduled for next Wednesday followed by the backsplash going in after that. Hopefully the cabinets, at least the frames, will be done by then. Perhaps we can relax a bit this weekend ... hit the beach or pool ... eat some shrimp. You know you are getting old when you see a cute bikini clad damsel on the beach and wonder what her grandmother looks like!